Maybe this time we can talk about the link instead of having a referendum on facebook's privacy policies for the billionth time..

I thought it was interesting. It's a shame we feel like any thoughts or opinions that are linked to our names have to be absolutely private or bad things will happen. It's probably true, but it's still a shame.posted by amethysts at 8:33 PM on June 15, 2010

it is sort of interesting that people, on one hand, post all sorts of information about themselves on the Internet (IT'S THE INTERNET, IDIOT!), and then get upset when people read the information they posted....posted by HuronBob at 8:36 PM on June 15, 2010

Dr. N.. wow... I've understood everything on the net...up to that post...posted by HuronBob at 8:44 PM on June 15, 2010

doctor_negative,

It's "My wife as ...". Completely changes the meaning.posted by lukemeister at 8:49 PM on June 15, 2010

man, facebook is full of wankposted by edgeways at 8:52 PM on June 15, 2010

It was never this clear to me before how totally illiterate the English speaking world apparently is. I get that a lot of it is jargon and dialect, but even if you exempt that, a random sample of facebook statuses says zero out of a hundred people can put together one grammatical sentence in a row.posted by rusty at 8:55 PM on June 15, 2010 [4 favorites]

I actually got kind of embarrassed on Facebook the other day.

There's this new thing where twats can use a javascript trick to make you 'like' something if you click on a link that appears in someone else's feed saying they liked that thing.

Anyway, something popped up in a friend's feed, it gave me a giggle, I clicked it... and five minutes later an ex of mine sent me a screenshot saying dnab likes [amusing, not overly embarrassing, but not something one wants one's boss or niece and nephew to see thing].

You mean if I write something on the Internet, other people may be able to read it? I've long since figured out that the Facebook privacy "controversy" is mostly people coming to this conclusion far later than they should have. Social networking sites are not some kind of gated community where only your friends can ever possibly see what you post, I never understood them to be that and I think most people who grasp how the Internet actually works didn't either. If you broadcast to the entire Internet that you shot some really awesome heroin this weekend, don't blame Facebook when your potential employer Googles your name and finds it.posted by DecemberBoy at 9:33 PM on June 15, 2010

Interestingly, if you search for "cock" (couldn't resist, sry), you'll find that maybe a majority of the results are people who have had their accounts hacked and vandalized (.i.e, some high school football player with "I LOVE COCK AND IM A FAG" as his status update).posted by Avenger at 9:37 PM on June 15, 2010

Oh, humanity, I used to at least respect you...posted by lekvar at 10:22 PM on June 15, 2010

A decade, the MSN network had a security hole where a webpage running a CGI script could scoop the last few pictures sent between users. Sitting there refreshing the page, you could see a constant sampling of the photos MSN users were sending back and forth, about 2/3rds of which were of the MSN users naked.

Say what you will about the relative techno-savvy of MSN vs. AOL vs. Earthlink users, MSN users were an extremely unattractive bunch of over-40s.posted by fatbird at 10:24 PM on June 15, 2010

I'll never stop finding it funny how often "nigger" and "I'm not racist but" wind up in the same sentence.posted by Silentgoldfish at 1:13 AM on June 16, 2010 [6 favorites]

It's been at least a week since we talked about this. Can you read these on your iPad? 'Cause that would make a truly epic FPP.posted by fixedgear at 2:55 AM on June 16, 2010

My FB status says I smell really badly of cat piss right now and didn't notice until I was at work. I have perfect privacy settings though so nobody has noticed yet, least of all my co-workers.posted by vbfg at 3:14 AM on June 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

My favorite insane comment found on Open Book was "blaming BP for the oil spill is like blaming New Orleans for Katrina." Wish I could find it again...posted by Sticherbeast at 4:45 AM on June 16, 2010

Social networking sites are not some kind of gated community where only your friends can ever possibly see what you post,

Of course, Facebook started off as just exactly this kind of gated community. I'm not sure most FB users now know that, but when you use FB it does still sort of have that feeling in its brand ... intentionally or not, its set up in such a way as to imply only your friends are seeing what you post, even when they're not.posted by anastasiav at 5:18 AM on June 16, 2010

Hey! Are you a brain-dead Racist Asshole? If so, we've got a social networking site for you! RacistBook! Join now and bask in the willful ignorance of your peers!posted by Fuzzy Monster at 7:43 AM on June 16, 2010

I can remember so many times where I've gone to post a status update, and then thought, carefully, about who might see it. Only my friends can seen my status updates, but even then, do I want them all to see it? Are there people I should manually hide certain updates from? Should I create groups so that when I bitch about one group, it's hidden from them?

And then I see some of the shit on here, and I'm glad that I have that policy.posted by SNWidget at 7:46 AM on June 16, 2010

I was not aware that "nigger rig" is such a common colloquialism.

I actually never heard it until now, and I haven't been so sheltered (though I've stayed above the Mason Dixon line.) I grew up (not around PC people, either) using jerry-rig, which turns out to be a bastardization of jury rig.

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